“In the 70’s and 80’s,” he says, “it was a very difficult time for gays to have any kind of relationship in public, anywhere. Now, when you look at it, it’s kind of slightly old fashioned.”

The same might be said of the then-shocking 1960 film “Where the Boys Are” in which he played the role of an Ivy League yacht owner.

“This, to me, has joined that, in looking back on those times,” he said.

Despite a torn Achilles tendon, the 72-year-old actor perseveres through eight performances a week. The Broadway tour is a very long road.

“I had not one clue that we’d be 16 weeks, really, without any days off,” he admits.

It helps that he never looks beyond the next performance. He confides that his perpetual tan is helped along by bronzing powder.

“With a good tan,” he says, “I look too dark with it. With a light tan, it looks just right. With no tan, it looks kind of like, ‘He could turn orange on you.’ And that what I’ve always been accused, of that man in orange – that orange man.”

In a career that spans six decades, that “orange man” is doing just fine.